The other, not so tasty type of SOPA.

A 3 point primer.

And in more detail.

Fin loves splashing in his bath, so it’s not entirely surprising that his enjoyment of water translates to what is essentially the biggest bath he’s ever seen. Not only is it wide, but is it also deep enough to get some good leg action going. Water in the eyes and mouth didn’t even faze him.
Well done, water baby!

We had a busy start to 2012 with family and friends, which is just how we like it! So we’ve started the year exhausted, but in a good way.

Both P and I gave up on making New Year’s resolutions many moons ago. But if we still made any, our aims for 2012 would be alone these lines:

1. Host more parties! We aren’t party animals, nor do we have elegant dinner parties. But we enjoy comfortable shindigs with our friends, where we can just hang out, chow down on good food and drink, and chat about anything under the sun. Having a BBQ on the first day of the year signals our intent. We have started as we mean to carry on.

2. Keep a reasonably tidy home. I’m somewhat more of a neat-freak than P (our different lab benches are evidence of that!), and now that we’ve thrown Mr Destruction (aka Fin) into the mix, mild chaos ensues with books and toys scattered about the place. I sometimes wonder if Fin just likes emptying shelves and boxes, or if he’s trying to tell us that he’d like to live with more minimal decor, and that we should get rid of our crap…

3. Travel! It was tricky to adapt to travelling with a dog 3 years ago, or making arrangements for Kirin to be looked after when we went to non-doggy places. And having Fin didn’t stop us from going places and doing things in 2012, and I hope the same will be true for his second year. It was relatively easy bundling him up and just taking off (along with his bags and bags of stuff) for his first 11 months. But having a moving toddler-to-be may make long-distance air travel a little trickier. Nevertheless, I hope Fin continues to enjoy our adventures.

There are many more grown-up things we’ll have to tackle in 2012, and some of them will be a lot more difficult than our usual style of coasting from day to day. My hope is that these three general aims will keep us sane through the trickier times.

Here’s to 2012 and all that it brings!

So to make up for Kirin, here’s one just for her (photos all taken in Morro Bay, Kirin’s favourite beach town):

FAMILY and Kirin, originally uploaded by framboise.

Chilling, originally uploaded by framboise.

The four of us, originally uploaded by framboise.

The three of us have been to San Diego, Morro Bay, London, Bournemouth, Oxford, Scotland (mainly at Bankhead), and Vancouver. (And plenty of parks in LaLaLand alone.)

Just a couple of months after Fin’s arrival, we headed down to San Diego for a long weekend. That was fun for me; after having gone back to work after a mere 6 weeks post-Finlaggan, it gave me a chance to bond with him while P attended a Drosophila conference.

Post-SD, my mother (Po Po to Fin) came out to LA to watch over Fin as P spent some much-needed time on tidying up data and writing his manuscripts. Plus, we had Fin’s Welcome to the World party after his first set of immunisations. And drove up to Morro Bay with Po Po for some early summer chillin’ by the sea.

Morro Bay:

The trip to the UK in the summer was a very important one for Fin to meet his Granddad and the paternal relations. Somewhere, I have photographic evidence that he hung out and played well with his two cousins. But this will have to wait until I can dig through the million or so photos we took in 2011 alone. (The chances of our older unblogged trips ever seeing light of day are fading…)

The most recent trip to Vancouver was especially fun as my parents came with us, and we met with my cousin, his fiance and his parents. They were the ones we used to go on long road-trips to Malaysia with (all the way to Penang from Singapore), so it was great to recreate and reminisce.

Rice crackers taste even better when you have a fantastic view to the waterfront in our fancy-pants rental apartment, that would normally be way beyond our reach:

On Bute St, on the way to the Waterfront, 4 blocks from our plush rental apartment:

In all, it’s been a busy year, but one filled with a great deal more tears and laughter than our usual. And we look forward to more of everything in 2012!

Bonne Annee! 新年快乐！ Happy New Year!

*Pronounced Aye-Lah as opposed to Aye-Lay or Is-Lay.

Have yourself a Merry Swinging Christmas!

With two teeth on the bottom, and 2 on the top, Fin can finally bite through toast.

Fin wide awake on last night’s flight from YVR to LAX. Fortunately, he was in a decent mood for 90% of the flight, helped by the important task of emptying the seat pocket of never-ending safety cards, magazines, menus and sick bags. Towards the end of the flight, his crankiness ramped up a little, and our new magic weapon was produced: a thunderbird puppet. Not the British Thunderbirds*, but the North American mythical Thunderbird instead (photos to follow).

*Thunderbirds are go!

Last day in Vancouver

Fin is a great help when packing. He takes things out as you put them in, making you reconsider the necessity of the item.

Two emerging top front teeth could explain Fin’s recent spell of crankiness and loss of appetite.

He now has the necessary tools to finish his favourite arrowroot biscuits instead of ditching a soggy, gummy biscuit.

And we’re looking forward to increasing his repertoire of finger foods.